ARTICLES ABOUT CAM RANH BAY BY DATE - PAGE 2

Each year a few Vietnam veterans march in our local 4th of July parade. They follow the lawnmower drill team, high school bands and grinning politicians. The crowd lining the street falls silent as the Vietnam vets pass by in rumpled fatigues and boots. Some have beards and wear black T-shirts, sunglasses and big POW and MIA buttons. They are paunchy middle-aged men now with faces that are just beginning to line and hair that is thinning or starting to go gray. They walk down the street out of step, almost defiant.

They came to watch Emperor Akihito's ascent to the Chrysanthemum throne, but for most of the high-level representatives of 158 nations, visions of money and diplomatic breakthroughs danced in their heads. And almost immediately after the ceremonies had ended, the parade to Japanese government offices began. First came Cuban Vice President Carlos Rafael Rodriquez, who asked Japan to act as an intermediary so the United States and Cuba could end decades of diplomatic discord and normalize relations.

On Oct. 26, 1760, George III was crowned King of England. In 1774 the First Continental Congress was adjourned in Philadelphia. In 1785 the first mules in the United States arrived in Boston from Spain as gifts from King Charles III to George Washington. In 1905 Sweden recognized Norway's independence. In 1920 Terrence MacSwiney, lord mayor of Cork, Ireland, died in his prison cell after a 75-day hunger strike. (He had been imprisoned for conspiring against the crown.

On Oct. 26, 1774, the First Continental Congress opened in Philadelphia. In 1881 gunfighter Wyatt Earp, his two brothers and "Doc" Holliday shot it out with Ike Clanton's gang at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Ariz. Three of Clanton's gang were killed, and Earp's two brothers were wounded. In 1942 the U.S. aircraft carrier Hornet was sunk in the Solomon Islands battle of World War II. In 1947 the first war dead of World War II were returned to the United States. The streets of New York were lined by a silent crowd as the bodies were moved up 5th Avenue to Central Park for services.

By William Safire, (copyright) 1988, New York Times News Service | September 20, 1988

In a column five years ago that deserves a retroactive Pulitzer Prize, Rowland Evans and Robert Novak revealed a whopping violation by the Soviets of the ABM treaty: a huge phased-array, battle-management radar complex in Krasnoyarsk. That treaty limited each superpower's defense against incoming missiles. The idea was to guarantee each nation's near-nakedness to retaliation. But the Krasnoyarsk radar violates that agreement: When completed, it would give the Soviets a "breakout" by lessening the threat of our deterrent.

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, in a major foreign policy address delivered Friday in western Siberia, offered to close the Soviet Union's huge naval base in Vietnam if the United States abandons its military facilities in the Philippines. He also said the Kremlin might turn a controversial Soviet radar station into an international center for space research. The wide-ranging Asian policy speech, as reported by the official Tass news agency, was delivered to a Communist Party gathering in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, which Gorbachev has been visiting this week following a six-week summer vacation.

The U.S. began talks on the future of its largest overseas military installations Tuesday with a warning that the Soviet Union represents a "clear threat to Philippine air and sea space." In a three-hour opening session, U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Platt leaned heavily on the issue of Soviet regional military strength, contending that U.S. bases here are vital in protecting Asian nations and their commerce. His statement began what is expected to be tough series of negotiations with the Philippine government, which is under domestic pressure to raise its price for hosting six U.S. military bases.

By Keith G. Morrison, research analyst with the Committee for National Security, a Washington-based organization concerned with defense policy | September 11, 1987

The recent agreement by the Soviets to eliminate their Asian-based medium-range nuclear missiles is another example of General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's desire to compete on an economic and diplomatic level, even at the expense of the military. Critics and supporters of the proposed intermediate-range nuclear force (INF) treaty have focused mainly on its implications for the European theater, its effect on the NATO/Warsaw Pact military balance and on NATO's deterrent capabilities.

A letter from Genevieve Dolan said, "The article (about submarine construction) was written as if we were at war . . . with the Soviet Union." We are at war with it; do not be confused by the lack of firing. In World War II France and Germany sat six months without firing or maneuvering because it idn`t suit either one to begin the shooting war. As the USSR is winning the war against us without firing, it will continue on its successful course: moving surrogates into Nicaragua and Cuba, capturing Afghanistan, moving into Vietnam, using Cam Ranh Bay as a naval base, etc. It is much easier that way. Its latest success is convincing the U.S. to try to bring down the government of South Africa so the communists can hold that most critical of areas.